The fast pace of our society impels people, organizations, businesses, educational institutions and politicians to seek and adopt changes in the name of progress, but far too often, such changes bring little change of substance or value and sometimes even bring results that are less satisfactory than the realities before the changes. Many such actions are ill-conceived or poorly thought-out, while others are taken in the interest of current situations or “feel good” issues. Education has fallen prey to such ill-advised actions more and more over the last half century or so.
The two current “instigators” of such “progress” are technology and STEM-mania. While technology clearly offers benefits to learning, its impending take-over of our educational system has nothing to do with educational quality or academic excellence. It has to do with convenience and cost, period! As a school board member for six years, I heard quarterly reports on how engaged students were with their classroom devices, how intrigued they were, how much more they enjoyed their lessons. Once I left the board, I started substitute teaching in our local schools, and I have to say, the pictures painted were certainly rosier than the realities I have witnessed. Middle-school students all with devices in front of them are not necessarily more engaged, but they are being kept busy. And there certainly are no real indications that they are learning more.
Online coursework has indeed improved accessibility, but schools have taken this medium well beyond mere accessibility, and the reasoning has nothing to do with quality. It all has to do with enrollment numbers, retention, and cost. And our students are suffering. They simply are not learning as much or as deeply as they once were. That is not to say that online education lacks any value at all, but often the courses are poorly constructed, they are written by a single person, the content has led to standardization, and the instructors are often poorly trained and/or overburdened. As a former faculty director/co-chair for a large, for-profit institution on the East Coast, I saw those issues daily.
The mania that is STEM education has also led to curricular shifts and requirement alterations that have little to do with real education and more to do with test results and job training. STEM has propelled our schools (at ever lower levels) to focus more on glorified vocational training than on truly educating the minds of our young people. Those disciplines should attract young minds curious about the world and its workings, not because they will make their student record look better for college entrance or because they might want to be in a STEM career.
Change is not necessarily progress, and progress does not ensure positive change. Unfortunately, the overwhelming concern of educational leaders is too often tied to dollar signs than to the young minds with which they are being entrusted.